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Duck poacher apologizes

David Fraser can't apologize enough as he talks about ducks,
guns and stupid decisions, knowing the anger of countless Canadians
will soon be focused on the little Saskatchewan town he calls home.

"What can I say? We've never been in any kind of trouble
before. We're just three young guys who made a stupid mistake," says
Fraser.

"Not that it's any excuse, but we honestly didn't know it was
crime -- if we did we wouldn't have uploaded it to the Internet, and we
never would have done it in the first place. We really didn't know, and
we're very sorry about it."

That Fraser speaks quickly, sounding worried and a bit jittery
as he throws out explanations and apologies, isn't too surprising.

This morning, 30-year-old Fraser will join his 23-year-old
bother James Fraser and their brother-in-law Jeremy Rowlands in a
Saskatoon courtroom, where the trio will answer to charges of
slaughtering ducks for fun.

A flood of tips to Saskatchewan's anti-poaching line led to the arrests, made by wildlife officers and RCMP.

Until today's court appearance, the trio had anonymity to shield them from the barrage of loathing.

Now, the three men from Cudworth, Sask., will be known to all.
Public fury that's been festering for more than a week will finally
have a focus. It won't be pretty, and Fraser knows it.

There's already been vague threats.

"I have children, and we live in a small town, and I read one
post about the ducklings being orphaned, and there was a post saying,
'I hope they have kids so we can take care of their kids and show them
how the ducks feel.' "

He knows many people, including furious hunters and livid
animal rights advocates, see him and his comrades as bloodthirsty
savages who killed the ducks for a sick thrill.

But really, says Fraser, that's not who they are. Not at all
-- the laughter over orphaned ducklings and dying birds was out of
character.

"Is there remorse over killing the ducks? Absolutely. We're
all pet owners here, both cats and dogs, and we're not in the habit of
killing animals normally."

He says sorry again, repeating that he had no idea duck
hunting from the window of a car, with a rifle, was not allowed in
Saskatchewan.

Fraser and his brother arrived a half year or so ago from
Toronto, where he says the only birds they ever saw were seagulls and
pigeons.

Fraser says the video was only posted because it resembles other YouTube videos showing proud hunters and their quarry.

"It was just one of those silly things -- we didn't think hunting ducks was that big of a deal."

Except when you shoot ducks out of season, with a rifle, from your car and the roadside, it's called poaching.

Catching the trio of duck killers has been the hottest topic on hunting forums from Alberta to Texas.

Fraser says sorry to the hunters, too.

And today, in court, he'll say sorry one last time, and he hopes it's enough.

"If they give us a chance to speak, we're going to offer up a very sincere public apology," he says. "We're really sorry."

Ok obviously this didn't happen in the US but what kind of idiot would you have to be to think something like this is legal in any country?

He's either a liar or a complete moron! He should also know that this kind of inhumane crap doesn't fly in Canada.

I have never hunted in my life; have absolutely no desire to hunt, but I certainly know that there is a season for hunting various types of wildlife. To shoot them out of your car window? Me thinks he is suffering from that age old testosterone overload that quite a few young men suffer from and that he's in dire need of a good laxative cause he's full of sh*t!

I lived in Toronto for years - there are Canada Geese and Ducks in a hell of a lot of parks in Toronto - this dude lived in Toronto for years and had never been to Ontario Place? I call bullsh*t!

The guy should either be tried and convicted or should be put into care for his own protection if he's that big of an dolt.

A society which emphasizes uniformity is one which creates intolerance and hate. - Pierre E. Trudeau

OP it is accepted in the US. They do it to wolves every year. They do it to many animals. Just because you have a to buy a permit to hunt and have a limit does not mean some are not slaughtering for fun.

They were shooting out of season from the window of a car by the road without a permit and leaving the dead ducks behind. I don't think that would be legal anywhere.

Quoting stormcris:

OP it is accepted in the US. They do it to wolves every year. They do it to many animals. Just because you have a to buy a permit to hunt and have a limit does not mean some are not slaughtering for fun.

I don't know.. I wonder sometimes about the culture that supplies this sort of cavalier disregard for the suffering of another creature. Culture- of course- would include every single culture in the world to some extent. I mean, stepped onto a factory farm lately? Tom Harkin is ALL about factory farming (and it's animals that sit in their own shit day in and day out, fed completely unnatural diets and don't taste grass or see sunshine occasionally (hogs/chickens) until the day they're slaughtered).

Also, I get emails every year asking me to write to Canadian officials to stop the annual seal hunt- where they do club baby seals to death, which I find abhorent. Then there's SP and her government sponsored wolf shoot.

It's all around us. There IS a need to press government on these issues- whether they are legal or not.

Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants. - Michael Pollan

And while you're at it, remember that when you purchase food, you're voting with your dollar. Local farms, diversity, sustainability- all these should be positively answered by your vote.

I don't know.. I wonder sometimes about the culture that supplies this sort of cavalier disregard for the suffering of another creature. Culture- of course- would include every single culture in the world to some extent. I mean, stepped onto a factory farm lately? Tom Harkin is ALL about factory farming (and it's animals that sit in their own shit day in and day out, fed completely unnatural diets and don't taste grass or see sunshine occasionally (hogs/chickens) until the day they're slaughtered).

Also, I get emails every year asking me to write to Canadian officials to stop the annual seal hunt- where they do club baby seals to death, which I find abhorent. Then there's SP and her government sponsored wolf shoot.

It's all around us. There IS a need to press government on these issues- whether they are legal or not.

Thinking Like a Mountain By Aldo Leopold

A deep chesty bawl echoes from rimrock to rimrock, rolls down the mountain, and fades into the far blackness of the night. It is an outburst of wild defiant sorrow, and of contempt for all the adversities of the world. Every living thing (and perhaps many a dead one as well) pays heed to that call. To the deer it is a reminder of the way of all flesh, to the pine a forecast of midnight scuffles and of blood upon the snow, to the coyote a promise of gleanings to come, to the cowman a threat of red ink at the bank, to the hunter a challenge of fang against bullet. Yet behind these obvious and immediate hopes and fears there lies a deeper meaning, known only to the mountain itself. Only the mountain has lived long enough to listen objectively to the howl of a wolf.

Those unable to decipher the hidden meaning know nevertheless that it is there, for it is felt in all wolf country, and distinguishes that country from all other land. It tingles in the spine of all who hear wolves by night, or who scan their tracks by day. Even without sight or sound of wolf, it is implicit in a hundred small events: the midnight whinny of a pack horse, the rattle of rolling rocks, the bound of a fleeing deer, the way shadows lie under the spruces. Only the ineducable tyro can fail to sense the presence or absence of wolves, or the fact that mountains have a secret opinion about them.

My own conviction on this score dates from the day I saw a wolf die. We were eating lunch on a high rimrock, at the foot of which a turbulent river elbowed its way. We saw what we thought was a doe fording the torrent, her breast awash in white water. When she climbed the bank toward us and shook out her tail, we realized our error: it was a wolf. A half-dozen others, evidently grown pups, sprang from the willows and all joined in a welcoming melee of wagging tails and playful maulings. What was literally a pile of wolves writhed and tumbled in the center of an open flat at the foot of our rimrock.

In those days we had never heard of passing up a chance to kill a wolf. In a second we were pumping lead into the pack, but with more excitement than accuracy: how to aim a steep downhill shot is always confusing. When our rifles were empty, the old wolf was down, and a pup was dragging a leg into impassable slide-rocks.

We reached the old wolf in time to watch a fierce green fire dying in her eyes. I realized then, and have known ever since, that there was something new to me in those eyes - something known only to her and to the mountain. I was young then, and full of trigger-itch; I thought that because fewer wolves meant more deer, that no wolves would mean hunters' paradise. But after seeing the green fire die, I sensed that neither the wolf nor the mountain agreed with such a view.

Since then I have lived to see state after state extirpate its wolves. I have watched the face of many a newly wolfless mountain, and seen the south-facing slopes wrinkle with a maze of new deer trails. I have seen every edible bush and seedling browsed, first to anaemic desuetude, and then to death. I have seen every edible tree defoliated to the height of a saddlehorn. Such a mountain looks as if someone had given God a new pruning shears, and forbidden Him all other exercise. In the end the starved bones of the hoped-for deer herd, dead of its own too-much, bleach with the bones of the dead sage, or molder under the high-lined junipers.

I now suspect that just as a deer herd lives in mortal fear of its wolves, so does a mountain live in mortal fear of its deer. And perhaps with better cause, for while a buck pulled down by wolves can be replaced in two or three years, a range pulled down by too many deer may fail of replacement in as many decades. So also with cows. The cowman who cleans his range of wolves does not realize that he is taking over the wolf's job of trimming the herd to fit the range. He has not learned to think like a mountain. Hence we have dustbowls, and rivers washing the future into the sea.

We all strive for safety, prosperity, comfort, long life, and dullness. The deer strives with his supple legs, the cowman with trap and poison, the statesman with pen, the most of us with machines, votes, and dollars, but it all comes to the same thing: peace in our time. A measure of success in this is all well enough, and perhaps is a requisite to objective thinking, but too much safety seems to yield only danger in the long run. Perhaps this is behind Thoreau's dictum: In wildness is the salvation of the world. Perhaps this is the hidden meaning in the howl of the wolf, long known among mountains, but seldom perceived among men.

Thanks for clarifying. That's sick. Criminal or not, they should have known it was just wrong. It doesn't have to be a crime to be morally wrong. Killing an animal for anything other than food is cruelty. But it happens all the time. I here from people who shoot squirells in their backyards because they are a nuisance. I know some people eat squirrels, but most don't. Young boys learn to shoot their bb guns by aiming at small birds. Parents fail to teach their children an appreciation of nature.

Quoting angelachristine:

They were shooting out of season from the window of a car by the road without a permit and leaving the dead ducks behind. I don't think that would be legal anywhere.

Quoting stormcris:

OP it is accepted in the US. They do it to wolves every year. They do it to many animals. Just because you have a to buy a permit to hunt and have a limit does not mean some are not slaughtering for fun.

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